Summer Holidays - Valentia Is. 2009

Valentia Island, Co. Kerry was this year’s venue for the annual club summer dive holiday. While we have dived Valentia Island previously on bank holiday weekends, this was the first full week we had spent diving there. With the long range weather forecast looking extremely dodgy on the week leading up to the holiday, no one was too optimistic about getting too much diving. Thankfully this was not to be the case and the fact that it is an island providing us with several options as the wind changed direction during the week.
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After the long journey down on Saturday evening & a good night’s rest, all thirteen divers were ready for action at 9.30am Sunday morning. Based in Knightstown and a South Westerly force 5 blowing, Rosemary our DO chose the Basalt cliffs as our dive site for the day. We had two excellent dives on this site & I thought if the diving doesn’t get any better than this, it don’t matter! The water temperature was a surprisingly comfortable 15C.
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On Monday, Day two the wind changed direction to a north westerly force 5. We moved operations to Portmagee & headed towards Bray Head, where we dived between Danganmore Head & Doonroe cliff. This was a very nice dive with plenty of John Dory being spotted.
In the afternoon we braved the heavy sea to make our way out to Puffin Island where we dived the sheltered south side of the Island. With sheer drop offs to 40+ meters & loads of live, it was well worth the trip.
As the weather was expected to improve later in the week we decided to take the half day, a break to off gas on Tuesday. We dived Coosdermoda, just inside Bray head in the morning & what a dive it was. “Probably one of the best dives I have done in Irish waters”, I heard Liam Staunton exclaim after the dive. As we headed back to Portmagee we could see the elusive Skellig’s loop out of the sea in the distance & we all wondered would the weather ease enough for us to dive them this week.
On Wednesday morning, with everyone still ranting about their great dive on Coosdermoda, Rosemary decided there was at least another good dive there in the shelter of Bray head. Unfortunately we had a fire onboard Naas4, the 7.3mt Rib. While no one was injured and we were able to get back to Portmagee safely, the RIB was not usable for the remainder of the week.
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With plenty of great diving still to be had it was important this did not prevent diving or damped spirits, we transported Naas2, the 6.2mt RIB from the club house in Kildare down to Valentia over night. It was in Valentia and ready for action at 10am on Thursday morning. With the best weather forecast of the week, there was only one dive site to head for, the illusive Skellig Islands. The Skellig’s had eluded Barry for his entire 20+ year diving career, getting blown out every time he was in Valentia to dive the islands which are nine miles off shore. This was the long awaited opportunity to dive the skellig’s we had waited for.
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Glen Pier, near Ballinskellig is probably the easiest launching site and shortest run to the Skelligs and this was where we launched our assault from. We were not disappointed with our efforts as it was worth the trip just for the scenery alone & the diving was as spectacular as expected. We were just disappointed we could not spend longer & have more dives before the weather broke. We will certainly have to return soon & perhaps have an island tour & lunch in between dives.
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It was great to see the majority of our divers using nitrox during the week. As with all extended periods of diving we are exposed to the increased risk of DCS & Nitrox significantly reduces this risk. The MPS Nitrox panel & the two Coltrisub MCH16 compressors supplied us with air and nitrox for the week. With the capability to top off 14 x cylinders per hour we could leave filling all the cylinders until evening.
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The equipment ran faultlessly, a testament to all the work & maintenance done by our equipment officers, Bernard and Pascal. They both spent many hours working on the trailer the previous week ensuring it was available for the holiday.
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Friday night, our last night of the holiday was spent reminiscing over a few well deserved pints in Boston’s pub. Everyone was very happy with their week’s diving holiday in Valentia Island with everyone agreeing that we will have to return next year, a credit to the great diving that had been organised for the week by our DO, Rosemary Finn.